Resources for TAs

Resources for TAs and Labor Supervisors are regularly created and distributed by Teaching and Learning Assistant Programs to promote community, common points of knowledge, and the use of well-researched practices across TA work at Berea. The sites and documents below respond to some of the most common concerns and requests of both new and experienced TAs.

TA Moodle

At the beginning of each semester, TAs are invited to join a central Moodle site, exclusively for Berea TAs. The Moodle site houses a continually updated list of resources on Berea College policies and procedures, Labor Program requirements, and instructional technology. The Moodle site also acts as the central repository for presentations, activities, worksheets, and framing documents from TLAP training meetings, including the yearly TA orientation.

After the initial TLAP “Welcome!” sent to all students and Labor Supervisors at the beginning of each semester, the TA Moodle is the main method that TLAP program offerings and initiatives are shared with TAs across campus.

If you are a TA who would like to be enrolled in the TA Moodle or a TA Student Manager/Labor Supervisor who would like TAs in your program to be added, please contact the TLAP director.

Berea GoBoard

Through TLAP, Berea now has access to GoBoard, a tutoring whiteboard platform. GoBoard Basic does not require that students make an account. However, if a TA would like to hold meetings longer than 30 minutes, they can go to our GoBoard Premium site and enter as a “student” with their Berea e-mail: http://BereaCTL.GoBoard.com. Because GoBoard is designed specifically for peer-to-peer tutoring, GoBoard requires that users keep their cameras and microphones on, although both can be muted once students begin using the whiteboard. GoBoard Premium automatically captures all whiteboard pages and sends them in PDF format to tutors and students.

Some additional benefits of GoBoard:

- - TAs can host unlimited meetings (<5 participants at a time)
  - Offers video chat, audio chat, text chat, screenshare
  - TAs and students can upload PDFs and image files (from computer or cell phone)
  - TAs and students can create graphs, use graphing calculator features, create shared document libraries

GoBoard is very easy to use, with many tools for tutoring in both the humanities and sciences. For an in-depth overview of how to use GoBoard, visit the TA Moodle site. A guiding document and some TLAP-specific suggestions are under the “Technology” section. You are also welcome to go to the site and click around!

TA Guidebook

Each school year, the TLAP director revises a collection of tips, tricks, and suggestions for getting started as well as deepening your work as a TA. This document, the “Teaching & Learning Assistant Guidebook” is available here as well as on the TA Moodle site. The yearly edition is sent out via e-mail to all TAs and Labor Supervisors at the beginning of each semester.

Among the topics typically explored in each year’s guidebook:

- - What is a TA?
  - FERPA
  - Title IX
  - Academic Honesty
  - Labor Integrity
  - Managing & Tracking Time
  - Working with a Labor Supervisor
  - TA Hours
  - Tutoring Strategies

Peer Learning Library

The TLAP director maintains a substantial collection of books and articles on peer instruction and learning, teaching and learning for equity, and community education that TAs and Labor Supervisors can borrow.

There is also a large collection of reference books available in the Writing Resources space that specifically focus on strategies for supporting student writers.

Finally, the Center for Teaching and Learning works with Hutchins Library to purchase recent scholarship on teaching and learning each year. Many of these books include research, frameworks, and activities relevant for peer learning.

If you are developing or completing a TA labor project or class assignment that would benefit from any of these resources, you are welcome to contact the TLAP director for suggested materials.

TA Supplies

TLAP has a collection of supplies available for TAs to use in their work. This collection includes rolls of butcher paper, markers, cardstock, highlighters, Expo markers, post-it notes, tripods, and presentation boards.

If there are supplies you or your TA colleagues need for your work, please contact the TLAP director. Some materials may be available in our stock or in your department, or may be purchased for your use.